Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Recommendations for me a digital audio mixer?

You can mitigate the risk by keeping your keyboard gain low, but there are three downsides. First, the +4dBu line level standard tops out at 1.23V. The -10dBV standard tops out at 0.773V. If the volume control is set to allow a higher voltage and you play something fortessimo you may overspec the mixer and damage it.

Second, you compress dynamic range by only using 0 to .773V of the 0 to 1.23V range, and even that assumes you have a way to set the keyboard gain to allow precisely 0.773V as the peak output. This may not matter at individual listening levels, but your range from pp to ff may be lessened at some settings, particularly if you set the keyboard gain conservatively to mitigate the first issue. It appears that the clipping level of the Shure mixer inputs is +5dBV per spec sheet. From that you could work backwards and figure out the max voltage level of gain at the keyboard to leave adequate headroom, but you would not know what volume level achieves that max voltage.

Third, to some extent, it defeats the ability to do gain staging between the two devices and audio amp, which I won’t describe as it would dominate the posting but is the least important of the three issues for individual listening. But it still is a downside of the setup.

If you are happy with your existing setup, that’s what matters, but if someone is looking for a new keyboard mixer, I would not recommend one with only consumer audio inputs. Such a mixer is optimized for karaoke or DJ usage with mics, CD players, and other music players.

But if the OP wants an uncluttered mixer without complex effects, panning, and routing features, a line mixer is the solution:

https://www.sweetwater.com/c1014--Line_Mixers

Of which the Denon DN-312X looks reasonable:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DN-312X--denon-dn-312x-rackmount-mic-line-mixer

It has 3 stereo channels for consumer audio, and 6 mono channels that have a switch to set for a mic level or pro line level. You would just use two of them for the left and right output of a keyboard if the keyboard has stereo samples, or one channel if it is a mono keyboard (despite having left and right outputs).

But I find the routing features of a small studio tabletop mixer to be worth the extra complexity of user interface.

I would add that if all you want to do is switch between instruments and not layer the sounds from different instruments together, then all you really need is a passive switch box.

Thanks for the dose of common sense.Now all that's left is to convince the rest of the world.

Well, I expect this might simply be a generation and/or nationality thing.

I was raised to turn electrical appliances off after use, so the notion of leaving something switched on all day 'just in case I might wish to use it immediately' is a little strange.

I need layering.

What are you exactly looking for Tyrone?

What instruments are you connecting to it?

Do you need aux sends?

Do you need per channel EQ?

Do you need multi-channel IO with PC?

MIDI IN/OUT?

Are you looking for something suitable for live performance or studio recording?

Do you need per channel effects?

Compression?

etc.

There is simply no good answer to this until you specify your needs. I don't know any good quality mixer with only 4 inputs BTW.

But there is an audio interface with 4 inputs that are fabulous.

It appears that the clipping level of the Shure mixer inputs is +5dBV per spec sheet. From that you could work backwards and figure out the max voltage level of gain at the keyboard to leave adequate headroom, but you would not know what volume level achieves that max voltage.